At 11:02 AM 6/30/98 -0500, Richard Lawson wrote:

Real interested in reactions to this one.

And hoo-boy, I've got one here...

	Like most Lawson fics, this one sucks you in and keeps you reading
regardless of how you feel about the stoy. It's well written and I enjoyed
the way the fic cut back and forth between the two scenes, dragging out the
secret identities of the two involved in the lemon scene as long as
possible. As far as the sex scene is concerned, Lawson (or Bartram, the
intro confuses the issue) does a good job of keeping the fic from degrading
into pornography, but I do think a little more time could have been spent
on Ami's thoughts rather than the actions. There was some characterization
there, but I ended up skimming over at least a third or more of the lemon
simply since it seemed to be a touch repetitive. Of course, that could be
because I've read a lemon or two too many... *whistles innocently*

	However, all good things aside, I'm going to have to classify this fic
along with things like train wrecks and Mark Page fics: horribly
fascinating to see, but ultimately very disturbing. Perhaps it's just me
and my somewhat contradictory morals, but I'm left with little to no
respect for this version of Mamoru. The idea of sleeping with someone under
such circumstances just seems wrong, wrong, wrong to me. He uses Ami as a
sop for his broken heart and then rejects her just as quickly. Why is there
no reconciliation scene between him and Ami? While what they had may have
been only a one time fling, he could have at least had the decency to talk
to her about it. In my opinion, Mamoru is a two-timing slime in this fic.

	Secondly, why do none of the girls directly confront Usagi about her
change in attitude? What happened to the Rei that would slap Usagi silly
whenever Usagi began wailing in the middle of fight? Why doesn't one of the
other's say something? Even when Ami speaks out against Usagi, it's behind
her back to Mamoru. Have they all fallen so completely under Usagi's
shadow? Now, granted, I've only seen the DIC dubs of the anime so I might
be missing something from the other seasons, but I can't really imagine
what must have happened to cause the Senshi to be so wimpy when dealing
with their leader.

	My third problem with this story has to do with the initiation of Mamoru's
and Ami's affair. There seems to be little justification given for why
*these* two would do such a thing. The idea of a hidden interest between
the two seems like a rather sparse reason for the two to immediately have
sex. In fact, from the way the scene is written, it could have been any one
of the inner Senshi if they had been the one at the door. It's not too hard
to imagine any of the Inners having a hidden, or not so hidden, interest in
Mamoru, the problem is justifying Mamoru responding in kind and then the
two of them sleeping together on such short notice.

	Finally, my last problem with this fic is the role of Pluto and the
apparent role of time itself. Starting off, I'll admit to a bias here. Over
the course of time and the reading of too much fanfic, I've come to
absolutely despise the character of Sailor Pluto. Which is really sad
considering that I've never seen any of her actual anime appearances yet.
She strikes me as being one of the most manipulative, cold-hearted
characters in all of anime, and this fic seems to play right to that
stereotype. We are, or at least I am, left with the impression that poor
Ami has been callously manipulated and used by Setsuna to bring about her
own creation. Ami wasn't asked or consulted wether she wanted to be a
mother, and the quickness of her affair with Mamoru seems suddenly very
suspicious to me. On the bright side, it would seem to exonorate Mamoru at
least a little. I don't *think* Pluto is capable of direct mind-control.
Though there's little telling what a 20,000 year old, time-hopping,
magic-wielding alien like her could be capable of.  And there's little
doubt in my mind that she is an alien, if not physically, than at least
mentally. Considering the differences between how a 100 year old man thinks
and a 20 year old man does, I think when multiplied by a factor of 200, the
differences become far greater than the similarities.

	Additionally, the event at the very end of the fic is rather obviously
invocative of the story project's title, ie "Circles of Time". Again, I
have a problem with this and it seems to suggest precisely what Usagi
fears. Namely that there is nothing that can be done by the Senshi or
anyone else to change the future, that the future is already carved into
stone simply because it, like the past, has already happened. Maybe that's
intentionally conveyed, so I guess I'll just say that I don't like it.

	In conclusion, please don't regard this as a flame. I realize that I rant
a bit here, but it was never meant to be insulting. My personal bias is
toward having the fairy tale of Sailor Moon *stay* a fairy tale. I'm well
aware that when SM is taken the least bit seriously, the fairy tale begins
to fray around the edges. Consequently, I become rather picky about how the
characters are portrayed. The canon SM is, in my opinion, very black/white
in its depiction of good and evil, and I happen to like that in general.
Seeing Ami getting pregnant out of wedlock, and then giving birth far away
from home and friends and without their knowledge does not make for a
happyfic. Nor does the fact that Ami's child has already had her destiny
laid out before her, 20,000 years before her birth brighten things up. 

	In conclusion again, and I mean it this time, I gotta say I really want to
like this fic, but it just doesn't jive that well with my own
likes/dislikes about SM. Like the aforementioned train wreck, I'm going to
keep watching, it's a Lawson fic and I've never met one I've been able to
put down (granted, it took me three tries to get through the first chapters
of TIL because I thought they were horribly OOC, but the damn things kept
nagging at me until I forced my way through and got to the good stuff
beyond). So, I'm going to keep reading this and hopefully C&Cing because I
can't stop. Not the best of reasons, but it'll do for now.

Hmm... I seem to be rambling...
Time to go to bed.

G'night!
Scott

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Scott Pollert [pollerts@hsonline.net]